The Berry Workshop
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1274a. It's the first day of Rachel's workshop, and Chloe Clarke has never been more ready for anything in her life. - Red series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 60th cycle. Now cycle 61!_

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_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

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**"The Berry Workshop"  
(Older) Rachel, Sophie, Chloe, & Workshop  
Red series  
_(no listing yet; sequel to "Chance Reunion")_  
**

She doubted if she had slept a wink the night before. When morning came though, she had enough energy in her to last three days. She got up, showered, dressed, all before anyone else was up, so she decided to make breakfast for her hosts. Today was her first day in Rachel Berry's workshop, the whole reason she was back here in New York, living with her and her daughter. Even then, the experience had become so much more. She never could have guessed that anything like this could happen to her, or she would have thought maybe she had finally lost her mind. She was living with, eating with, going around New York with, watching television with her idol, every day for two weeks now.

"Morn… Woah…" She looked up to find Sophie had joined her.

"Good morning," Chloe swooped in, putting a cup of coffee in her hands. "Careful, it's hot," she warned.

"Yeah, I can see that," Sophie startled before getting a whiff of the coffee and breathing out.

"Sit, breakfast will be ready soon," she promised.

"What are you… Oh, right, it's today," Sophie went to sit.

"Yes, yes it is," Chloe sounded so chipper Sophie had no way of arguing with this.

"Look, she made food," she spoke then, and Chloe looked up.

"Good morning," she reached to fill the second cup and bring it to Rachel.

"It sure is," she smirked, taking the cup. "Thank you."

Chloe had already eaten, and seeing her sat there, obviously excited and with nothing to do while they ate, Rachel and her daughter did their best not to feel like they should be eating faster.

But finally they had finished their plates, which Chloe gathered and took to cleaning while Rachel went to get ready. Sophie was off to meet some friends, so it would just be the two of them heading into the workshop. In the car, Sophie had worried that seeing them come in together, the others might consider her preferred and hate her on the spot. Rachel had offered to stop the car and let her come in on her own. Chloe hesitated, but she finally agreed.

There were a dozen of them in the workshop this year and, from what she could see, she was the youngest. Everyone looked so much more ready for this, she thought. She was ready, too, of course she was, but with most of them it looked more like… like their face would crack if they tried to smile.

"Don't let them freak you out," a girl spoke behind her and she turned. She was blonde, and a good head taller than Chloe, who thought she must have been a dancer for sure. "They put on a good show, but they've got no soul," she whispered, and Chloe smirked. "I'm Tara," the girl presented herself.

"Chloe."

"Where are you from?" Tara asked.

"Indiana. You?"

"Ontario."

"I've never been to Canada," was the first thing Chloe could think to say, and Tara laughed. "Well I haven't really been anywhere except here and home," she admitted.

"Don't worry about it, you've got years for that," Tara shrugged. "How old are you, sixteen?"

"Almost seventeen," Chloe replied. She almost asked how old she was, but then thought better of it. She would later establish that she was twenty-three, as the next girl she met was nineteen.

"Wait, no way," Tara laughed, waving over a short black girl. Chloe doubted she was more than five feet tall. "Dozen people here out of who knows how many applied, how did I not know you were one of them?" she hugged the girl when she had come jogging over. One so tall and one so short, it was about the weirdest thing Chloe had seen, and it made her smile. "Chloe, Little Eva," Tara presented them.

"Don't start with the Little business, Tara Wickham," the girl 'glared,' before turning to Chloe. "Eva Crawford," she introduced herself.

"Chloe Clarke," she nodded. "Are you from Ontario, too?"

"Do I sound like I am?" Eva smirked. "Texas, born and raised."

"What is this, a Shrek revival? The ogre, the ginger, and the donkey…" they were interrupted by a boy who stood by the window.

"What'd he call me?" Eva looked ready to clock him, though Tara stopped her. The boy laughed, moving to the other side of the room. "Oh, he is going to get it, he is…"

"Don't mind Thomas, he left his filter up in those mountains in Colorado," a second boy had approached them when he saw the encounter. "I'd say he's got nothing going for him, but they've got me rooming with him and I have seen him with his shirt off, I will leave it at that," he gave a face that told the girls he would not mind seeing that again. "I'm Marcus," he nodded.

"Tara."

"Eva."

"Chloe." Marcus Anthony was twenty years old. He had lived in New York all his life save for the last year and a half, since his family had moved to Nebraska, something he would quickly lament as the worst moment of his life. He was thrilled beyond words to be back where he belonged.

Rachel would be glad that Chloe had decided to go her own way into the studio. She had stopped by her office to find that she had a visitor. "Peter?"

The man looked almost the same as he had, the last time she had seen him. His hair was shorter, but like with his daughter there was no taming those red curls.

"Is she here?" he asked, standing.

"She is," Rachel confirmed. "Look, she is very excited about today, if you would let her have this before you…"

"No, I… I'm not here to see her. Well, I am, but…" He sighed, looking away.

"You want to see her, but you're not ready for her to see you," Rachel understood.

"I wouldn't even know what to tell her," he admitted. After a moment, she had breathed out and pointed the way.

"Go up there, you can see into the room but she won't see you. But you just listen here. I want you to be careful. That's a special girl you've got in there, and that's no thanks to you. If you hurt her…"

"More than I already have?" he cut her off, and she nodded slowly. "I know," he promised. "It's the last thing I want." She watched him go before heading into her office. She took up her things, then went to find her students. When she entered, they applauded, so she raised her hand.

"Please, thank you," she smiled. "Welcome, all of you. I hope you have come here this morning ready to work, because that's what we're going to do, and I won't slow down, so keep up, alright? Let's do this."

THE END

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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